Basically the forced shift to the enshittified Windows 11 in october has me eyeing the fence a lot. But all I know about Linux is 1: it’s a cantankerous beast that can smell your fear and lack of computer skills and 2: that’s apparently not true any more? Making the change has slowly become a more real possibility for me, though I’m pretty much a fairly casual PC-user, I don’t do much more than play games. So I wrote down some questions I had about Linux.
Will my ability to play games be significantly affected compared to Windows?
Can I mod games as freely and as easily as I do on Windows?
If a program has no Linux version, is it unusable, or are there workarounds?
Can Linux run programs that rely on frameworks like .NET or other Windows-specific libraries?
How do OS updates work in Linux? Is there a “Linux Update” program like what Windows has?
How does digital security work on Linux? Is it more vulnerable due to being open source? Is there integrated antivirus software, or will I have to source that myself?
Are GPU drivers reliable on Linux?
Can Linux (in the case of a misconfiguration or serious failure) potentially damage hardware?
And also, what distro might be best for me?
Depends on the game. In general no, unless it has kernel anticheat, which Linux will not allow because that’s a glaring security risk.
Yes.
Most Windows software can be run on Linux using Wine. But there are advantages to using Linux-specific alternatives - they are often lighter and faster.
Yes, each distribution has its own update tool. They also install and update software (like in Android, where Google Play installs and updates all apps and not just the OS). No need to download exe files from random websites.
Linux is generally much more secure than Windows, because it is open-source. Most internet servers and supercomputers use Linux partly because of its security.
Nvidia is notoriously bad but getting better. AMD is good.
No.
Linux Mint. It is stable, reasonably up to date and does not make confusing changes every update. It also tends to work on most systems.